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Una Mullally

Society, life and culture on the edge

Hillary Clinton doesn’t care about makeup, and she’s dead right.

In a world that’s obsessed with women wearing makeup, it’s also weirdly one obsessed with women not wearing makeup. Hillary Clinton – no stranger to having her appearance slagged off – bore the brunt of those who feel it’s appropriate …

Una Mullally

Una

Thu, May 10, 2012, 13:59

In a world that’s obsessed with women wearing makeup, it’s also weirdly one obsessed with women not wearing makeup. Hillary Clinton – no stranger to having her appearance slagged off – bore the brunt of those who feel it’s appropriate to spend more time commenting on how one of the most powerful politicians in the world looks, rather than what they do, when she wore minimal makeup while on business in Bangladesh and India last weekend.

Not the US Secretary of State(pic via saphirafashion.com)

Jezebel addresses the topic calling Matt Drudge out on his “triumphant smugness” after he posted a photo of Hillary sans-smideadh on Monday.

The Daily Mail mused at length that her busy travel schedule is taking its toll on her ability to apply Touche Éclat before delivering a speech. Clinton is “ready for a rest” they declare. Indeed! Send this makeupless beast to pasture, for a lack of enthusiasm for bronzer is surely the beginning of the end of this woman’s life.

While male politicians are of course subjected to criticism over their appearance, it generally doesn’t form the vast majority of discourse surrounding their existence. For women in politics, a reference to appearance is generally much higher on the list when their names are called. Clinton is wrong on many counts in the eyes of her critics as she is a) the wife of another famous politician so clearly only got where she is because of him, b) the wife of someone who cheated on her, which is obviously her fault, eh, somehow, c) older than 50 and therefore irrelevant. So even if Clinton invented a time machine while breaking the 100m record on her way to perfecting a HIV vaccine, commentators on the sidelines would probably vox pop observers about whether or not her ankles looked fat.

Clinton responded to au-natural-gate by telling CNN “if others want to worry about it, I let them do the worrying for a change.” A brilliant attitude like that? Well, maybe she’s born with it.

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